Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves drop for third consecutive week

The volume of the Russian Central Bank's gold and foreign currency reserveswas $44.2bn on September 6, 2002, a decrease of $100m over the past week.The same decrease in the Central Bank's reserves was posted on August 30,i.e. two weeks ago. Overall, the Central Bank has been decreasing its goldand foreign currency reserves for the third week in a row since August 23:within this time, the bank's reserves have diminished by $500m. A decreasein the Central Bank's gold and foreign currency reserves for three weeks ina row has not been posted for several years. The current volume of Russia'sgold and currency reserves is nearly equal to a month-ago level, since theCentral Bank's reserves posted on September 6 are only $100m lower than onAugust 9..